The Dawn Preamplifier
$4,195 ** USD
($1,000 deposit)
“The Dawn” marks the beginning of Spatial Audio’s new Evolution Series — a collection dedicated to breathing new life into the most celebrated designs of classic high-performance audio.
Born from the spirit of Don Sachs’ acclaimed DS2 line stage, The Dawn represents a complete re-imagining of his legacy — engineered by Spatial Audio with Don’s direct collaboration.
Every aspect of this preamplifier was rebuilt from the ground up to achieve one goal: to connect you more deeply to the music.
Dimensions: 13.5” x 11” x 7” 13.5lbs
Tubes: (x4) 6SN7
64-step volume ladder attenuation with Remote Control, 4-Source Sequential Selector, Mute
Zero feedback, single-ended design
Frequency Response: 10Hz - 200kHz +/- 0.5dB
Power Draw: 25W
Output impedance: 600 ohm
12dB gain @ full power
XLR: 1 Input (pair) - OPTIONAL
RCA: 4 input (pair) / 2 output (pair)
In-home trial 45-day return
5 year Warranty (excludes tubes)
Shipping included to lower 48 states
Preamplifier Specs
(Preliminary)
Why Single-Ended Still Matters
Options
Colors:
Walnut Wood (Dark)
Cherry Wood (Light)
Tung Sol (standard)
BYO 6SN7 / 12SN7 (Deduct $200)
Tubes:
A Heritage Reborn
Key Features
More Information
The Dawn preamp is natively single-ended and comes standard with 4 x RCA inputs. An optional balanced (XLR) input is available for those with that requirement. The output is exclusively single-ended RCA with both main channel output and a second L/R output useful with a subwoofer.
At the heart of The Dawn lies the legendary 6SN7 — a vacuum tube prized for its musicality, linearity, and timeless elegance. This tube was not chosen for nostalgia, but for performance. The 6SN7 exhibits exceptional sonic stability, wide bandwidth, and graceful overload characteristics. Its spacious soundstage and subtly euphonic second-order harmonic structure make it an ideal platform for extracting nuance without sacrificing detail.
The 6SN7 is also an ideal match to modern gear, including many solid-state power amplifiers. Its low output impedance, healthy voltage swing, and clean drive capabilities allow it to interface beautifully with high-resolution DACs, low-distortion amplifiers, and wideband speaker systems. Whether driving a pure Class D amplifier or a transformer-coupled tube amp, the 6SN7 brings cohesion, warmth, and spatial depth without obscuring microdetail or dynamic immediacy.
** Deposit of $1,000 on pre-orders. Balance due prior to shipping.
Where the DS2 was beloved for its natural warmth and emotional presence, The Dawn carries that spirit forward while unveiling an entirely new level of transparency, control, and immediacy.
At its foundation lies a newly developed power architecture, featuring advanced ultra low noise regulated B+ supplies with less than 2 µV of ripple. Custom-built, premium potted and shielded toroidal transformers and a 100% film-capacitor PSU ensure vanishing noise and effortless speed.
With the new state-of-the-art power supply, we were able to remove the noise-cancellation network found in the DS2, creating a more phase-coherent circuit that preserves natural timing, flow, and harmonic integrity.
But the transformation runs deeper than power alone. The Dawn’s circuit was completely re-voiced and refined around an R-matched Aikido topology that maintains both triodes at precisely the same operating point, inherently canceling distortion and noise, without feedback.
Beyond its circuit and power innovations, The Dawn introduces a new level of sophistication in operation. Intelligent protection and control systems quietly manage the experience — with automatic tube detection for 6SN7 or 12SN7 compatibility, soft-start and high-voltage delay sequencing for extended tube life, and output muting to prevent power-on transients. A dedicated subwoofer output and full remote power control add modern convenience without ever touching the signal path. Every feature was engineered to serve music first, preserving the purity of performance that defines The Dawn.
Ultra-Low-Noise Power Architecture
At the heart of The Dawn is a newly developed power system that redefines what’s possible from vacuum tube electronics. An ultra-low-noise B+ supply delivers less than 2 µV of ripple and 6 milliohms of output impedance, providing lightning-fast transient response. Premium shielded toroidal transformers and a 100% film-capacitor PSU eliminate the veil of power-supply noise. Additionally, all filament supplies and the Khosmo attenuator utilize low-noise regulated power supplies, keeping harmful EMI away from the signal. The result is a background of absolute stillness from which music can emerge naturally and unrestrained.
Optimized Aikido Topology
Building on John Broskie’s original concept, The Dawn refines the Aikido circuit to its purest form. It utilizes an optimized Aikido circuit with vacuum tube output isolation, removing load sensitivity found in standard SRPPs, while operating each triode at precisely matched bias points — inherently canceling distortion without resorting to feedback. This balance yields vanishing noise, superior linearity, and the liquid, time-true presentation that defines The Dawn’s sonic signature.
Pure-Path Aikido
The Dawn refines the Aikido circuit by removing its noise-cancellation network — a circuit once used to counter imperfections in the power supply. With today’s ultra-clean B+ architecture, that compensation is no longer needed, allowing the signal path to breathe freely with greater phase accuracy, microdynamic precision, and tonal openness.
Intelligent Tube Management
Modern protection and control circuits bring classic tube design into the present day. The Dawn automatically detects 6SN7 or 12SN7 tubes and applies the correct operating parameters, while a soft-start, high-voltage delay, and output mute protect both tubes and system components. In the rare event of tube failure or incorrect installation, the preamp safely enters protection mode — all without affecting the sonic path.
Precision Volume Control
One of the most critical functions of any preamplifier is volume control — the point where the music first meets your hand. In The Dawn, this role is entrusted to a custom Khozmo relay-ladder attenuator, engineered for absolute channel balance, ultra-low noise, and uncompromising transparency. Unlike traditional potentiometers or shunt-style controls, which can leave the signal reference floating and introduce subtle noise or tonal shifts, the ladder architecture forms a perfectly balanced resistive divider at every step. This design keeps impedance constant, grounding stable, and the signal path pure — resulting in unwavering tonal consistency and a jet-black background even at the lowest listening levels. Moving from the DS2’s earlier shunt-based system to this precision ladder network brought clear improvements in clarity, microdynamics, and channel tracking — a small detail with a profound effect and a key reason The Dawn delivers natural, effortless control over the music.
Grounding and Noise Isolation
Noise is the enemy of nuance — and grounding is its first defense. The Dawn employs a carefully tuned star-ground topology with isolated ground networks, minimizing loop area and preventing interaction between signal and power grounds. Every subassembly — from filament supplies to control logic — is separately regulated and filtered for vanishing system noise and pitch-black backgrounds.
Dual Outputs and Subwoofer Integration
In addition to its main outputs, The Dawn includes a secondary pair optimized for subwoofer or high-impedance amplifier integration. Each is filtered through a dedicated coupling network, ensuring seamless extension into the lowest octaves without compromising the purity of the main signal path.
Refined Construction and Isolation
Every physical element contributes to the sonic outcome. Custom vibration-damped chassis design, premium IsoAcoustics isolation feet, and carefully routed internal wiring preserve signal integrity from input to output. High-grade components — including VCap ODAM coupling capacitors, low-parasitic non-inductive wirewound resistors, and high-purity Teflon wire — ensure that every musical detail arrives intact and alive
The Dawn is a purist, single-ended Class-A topology, and single-ended tube amplification remains one of the most direct and musically honest pathways a signal can take. Instead of relying on the mathematical symmetry of differential summation, A single-ended design lets each triode work cleanly on its own, without the matching demands or cancellation mechanisms required in a balanced stage. Preserving the full harmonic structure — including the natural even-order components that give tubes their dimensionality, warmth, and human presence.
These even-order harmonics are not flaws to be corrected, but essential cues that make reproduced music feel alive. A single-ended topology keeps these harmonic relationships intact, letting the inherent voice of the tube come through with clarity and coherence.
Why single-ended works so well with tubes
Balanced topologies require precise matching of the active devices so that two opposite-phase signal paths can cancel distortion and noise cleanly. In solid-state circuits, device matching is easy. In tubes, it isn’t:
Triodes vary significantly from tube to tube
They drift with age
Their internal characteristics rarely stay perfectly symmetrical
To make a tube circuit behave as a proper differential pair, designers must add matching networks, additional gain stages, balancing components, and sometimes servo loops or trimming circuits. All of these introduce more parts and more interactions in the signal path.
A single-ended circuit avoids this complexity entirely.
Each triode operates at a stable, optimized bias point, with no requirement for matched partners or cancellation networks. The result is:
Fewer coupling interfaces
Fewer summing nodes
Fewer components in series with the music
More consistent behavior across tube types and lifespans
Noise performance: why SE is not a disadvantage
In a home audio system, interconnects are short and the environment is quiet. Here, the noise floor is dominated far more by:
Power supply architecture
Grounding scheme
Parasitics and layout
Regulator performance
…than by whether the topology is balanced or single-ended.
With The Dawn’s ultra-low-noise power supply, high-isolation regulators, 100% film-cap reservoir, and carefully controlled grounding, the single-ended circuit actually achieves lower real-world noise than many balanced tube designs — without requiring additional differential stages that add their own broadband noise.
Perfectly compatible with modern balanced amplifiers
Today’s amplifiers use sophisticated instrumentation-grade input stages that accept RCA or XLR with very low penalty. When feeding a balanced amp from a single-ended preamp:
The amp handles the SE→balanced conversion internally
Noise and distortion remains extremely low
Tonal integrity is maintained
Thanks to the transparency of modern differential input stages, The Dawn’s single-ended output pairs naturally with today’s balanced amplifiers.
Inputs:
4 x RCA (standard)
3 x RCA + 1 x XLR (Add $500)